Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Game Planning Coverages

I received an e-mail from a reader asking about coverage
philosophy and game planning. So here goes.

Our base coverage concept is a match-up zone quarters. In
every game, we plan to run multiple coverages that fall into one of three
categories.

Zone – Depth, Vision, & Break coverages. In zone
coverage our defenders will drop to the deepest part of a zone with vision on
the QB and break on the throw.

Man – Tight aggressive one on one coverage.

Match-Up Zone – Combination of Zone & Man. Based on the
pattern run by the offense, we are going to play either zone principles or man
principles. Match-Up zone calls allow us to aggressively deny selected routes
while playing depth, vision, and break vs. other routes.

When we are game planning coverage our priority list is:

Run Support/Run Adjustments

Action Passes

Quick game/Easy throws

DBP Route Combinations

Specials/Trick Plays

First and foremost, every game plan starts with how to stop
the run. How and where our DB’s will fit vs. the run is our first consideration
when planning coverage calls. In recent seasons, we have added run adjustments
to our stopping the run planning. When I say run adjustments, I’m talking about
bubble, WR screen, and pop pass that are built into running plays. We always
want to know how our coverage will account for those phases of the offense’s
run game.

Next in our thought process is how to handle action passes.
Our action pass plan will be tied to our coverage calls to defend the run. Action
passes are threats of explosive plays for the offense. We want to have the best
plan possible to eliminate explosives.

Third is how will we defend quick game and the easiest
throws. Our goal on all quick game is eliminating yards after catch. In zone
coverages, we expect our defenders to break on the throw and make sound
tackles. In short yardage situations, we have to be able to play a denial
coverage (man or match-up) to prevent completions. However, good vision and
break from zone coverage can lead to incompletions vs. quick game too. We have
been successful with defenders jarring the ball loose on quick game by making a
good break and hitting the receiver before the completion of the catch.

Fourth on the list is drop back pass (DBP). We prioritize
the offense’s vertical passing plays first among DBP. If the ball is completed
over a DB’s head, the other ten defenders don’t get to play. If the ball is
thrown underneath, all 11 defenders get to run, rally, and tackle. Every DBP
coverage decision we make is evaluated based on how it matches up vertically. Our
plan for DBP is built around placing mental demands on the offense. We want the
QB to have to identify the coverage post-snap. By disguising and changing up
the coverage, we are going to limit the offense’s ability to make a clean pre-snap
read. Also by changing up the coverage, we are going to place physical demands
on the offense. Take for example a 4 verticals route concept. Against a zone
coverage like cover 3, the QB is going to try to throw the ball over the top of
the underneath droppers but before the deep defenders. Against quarters, the
offense is trying to bend a vertical into the open middle of field attempting
to beat a safety 1 on 1. Against, a Cover 1 concept the QB will have to make a
man beater throw into a tight window. All three situations are different for
the offense. Creating mental demand (What coverage is it?) and physical demand
(Making the right kind of throw) while facing a pass rush is our plan to defend
DBP.

Lastly, we want to be ready for the trick plays the offense may
throw at us.

In game planning, we want to force the offense to react to
the coverages we are calling. By changing up the coverage call, we are being
proactive. If we are spending all our time reacting to the offense’s calls in
game, we have failed in the game planning phase.

How do we actually
make this happen in our game plan and execution?

We start our planning with self-scout. What do we run? What
tendencies will our opponent see when they break down our film? In the simplest
form the offense wants to know:

What is our base coverage?

What are our complimentary coverages?

When do we call them?

Being able to answer these questions for ourselves influences
our game plan.

Next, we create our opponent scouting report. The coverage
scouting report focuses on what route combinations they have run. How will we
defend those routes in our base coverage? We want to look specifically at what
has our opponent called against other quarters teams (scouting report). What
have they called against us in the past (previous seasons)? What has worked
against us in quarters coverage in other games this season (self-scout)? Those
are the concepts we need to rep in practice all week. The down and distances when
we expect to see those concepts are based on the combination of their tendencies
and our self-scout. Our opponent has tendencies on when they like to call
certain route concepts. They are also planning for us based on our tendencies. We
can anticipate their “quarters beater” route concepts based on their scouting
report (What). We can predict they will call those “quarters beaters” in
situations they think we will be in quarters from our self-scout (When). Once we answer what and when, we can build a
game plan.

The scouting report also influences our COP calls. C.O.P. is
an acronym for change of pace.

For example:

Against quarters, offenses like to get a bender vertical or
a post into the open middle of the field. If the scouting report shows that is
a concept our opponent likes against quarters, we are going to plan some middle
of the field closed COP calls (Cover 3 or Cover 1). In the first quarter we
will make some COP calls in quarters coverage tendency situations. Proactively
making those calls early, can get a team to abandon the bender/post plan. We
don’t want to be reacting to them completing a post and then start making some
cover 3/cover 1 calls.

Example 2:

A team on 1st down likes to throw hitch to #1
against quarters to get on schedule. We might mix in some pressed cover 1 in
those situations as a COP. In those same situation we will call some press/bail
technique quarters. If the offense isn’t sure the hitch will be there, often
they will go away from the call. Another COP in this situation is cover 2
concept to deny the hitch. We can show the off alignment inviting the hitch
only to have a corner squatting in the flat. We may only want the squat corner
to the boundary so our COP might be a quarter-quarter-half concept. In other
situations we want to close the middle of the field and get a squat corner. In
that case our COP is a rolled cover 3 with the corner to the roll squatting in
the flat. Throughout the game we will mix up quarters with COP calls.

Some offense’s like to run route combinations that are
difficult for pattern match coverages. Being able to call a zone coverage in
those situations can be very beneficial. The offense is expecting the defense
to match-up but instead the defenders are playing depth-vision-break technique
and forcing the ball to be thrown short. If you are not pattern matching, the
routes designed to manipulate pattern match don’t affect your coverage. It
doesn’t take many COP calls to get an offense to mark calls off the call sheet.
No offensive coordinator likes wasted plays.

One question is what to do in medium and short yardage
situations. We are going to start by planning to play our base quarters match-up
zone. Our base alignment does not have the corners pressed. To complement our
base look we will play 5 underneath zone coverage to overload the underneath
zones. Typically it is a cover 2 concept with the corners aligned off the LOS.

We can also press our corners in quarters or play press man.
Our aggressive coverages force precision throws. We will also show press and bail to a zone.
Depending on the situation we may only press the boundary corner.

This is where the game within the game happens. If we get
into short yardage we may play press man the first time. The offense is going
to come back with press man beater concept the next short yardage situation. We
will come back with bail to our base coverage. We may call our base coverage on
short yardage. After practicing our base coverage against their short yardage
routes we expect to make the play. If the offense converts, we have a good idea
of what short yardage route concept the offense will come back with later in
the game. We can help ourselves win the game within a game by using our tendencies and self-scout to our advantage. If our self-scout shows that our short yardage plan has been press
man or bail quarters, we will plan to change up our COP calls.

Running multiple coverages is a simple concept. The issue is how do we get each coverage practiced. Our answer is limitation. When practicing we don’t call every coverage in every
situation. By planning to use COP calls in specific situations we can limit the
practice time for those coverages. We also try to find situations where COP
calls overlap. For example the team may have 1st down tendencies
that overlap with 2nd and medium situations. Being able to streamline
COP calls for multiple situations can improve practice efficiency.

Overall we are game planning to mix up our zone, man, and
match-up zone coverages. If the offense is locked into what coverage we are
running, they have the advantage. If we have done a good job planning, we will be
locked in to how the offense is going to try to attack the stress areas of our
base coverage. We will spend the week being ready to defend the offense in our base coverage. If the plan is good we will have also mitigated the stresses of our
base coverage by preparing COP calls. Proactive COP calls should dissuade the
offense from calling routes that we want to take away. Once we have forced the offense into their 2nd
or 3rd plan we will have to make in game adjustments.